The Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership delegation visits Mas Marès

This Wednesday we received more than 50 representatives of the global partnership Mediterranean Climate Action Partnership (MCAP) which aims to coordinate between Mediterranean climate zones in the adaptation and mitigation of climate change. At the meeting we explained our management of the lands of Mas Marès: a mosaic that combines pastures, olive trees, vineyards and cork oaks.

For more than twenty years we have managed the Mas Marès vineyard, at Cap de Creus, where we produce the wine of Anna Espelt’s most personal project and where we have promoted an agroecological project with the advice of the technicians with the Cap de Creus Natural Park. The main objective of the project is for vineyards, pastures and cork trees to coexist in symbiosis and help increase biodiversity and fire prevention. It is a total of 172 hectares located in the heart of the Cap de Creus Natural Park which are distributed with different uses: pastures for extensive livestock, olive groves, vineyards and cork oaks. The latter are part of the most fragile ecosystem, located to the south of the territory, the furthest part from where fires can come. The project has a triple objective: increasing biodiversity, increasing the resilience of the land to climate change and fire prevention.

Winegrowers, firefighters, biologists and foresters: a joint work

Ponç Feliu, director of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, Marc Castellnou, head of GRAF, and Míriam Villar of the General Directorate of Forests and Biodiversity also took part at the meeting. All three have emphasized that this mosaic management strategy helps to increase biodiversity, stop forest fires and preserve the Mediterranean landscape. On the other hand, the secretary of the Natural Resources Agency of California (USA), Wade Crowfoot, also participated. The American secretary describes Catalonia as a “leader” region in relation to climate resilience. “In California we have a lot of strategies as well, many of which are similar to what’s here and we’re learning from them as well,” Crowfoot notes. The American agency emphasizes the usefulness of seeing different experiences: it serves to implement the most appropriate strategies in each context.

Read more about the meeting at local and national press:

• Setmanari Empordà: Prevenció d’incendis i lluita contra el canvi climàtic: Catalunya promou al món el model de cap de Creus i el Montgrí
• La Vanguardia: Catalunya promueve en el mundo el modelo de lucha contra los incendios de Cap de Creus i el Montgrí
• Diari de Girona: Prevenció d’incendis i lluita contra el canvi climàtic: Catalunya promou al món el model de cap de Creus i el Montgrí